Being on church staff for 20 years has rewarded me with beautiful friendships
and divine moments of growth. I have worked with children, teachers, and pastors who taught me valuable lessons. Each lesson has become a story that has shaped my view of leadership today. I want to share a few principles I have received:
1. Move up to a new level of leadership. Seek to go ahead of your followers and begin laying bricks on the road that your ministry will go down.
2. Recognize that inflexible leadership fails when it is time to make needed changes.
3. If you are still doing the same thing, you are stunting your growth. You need people to take your place in ministry tasks. “I” am a limited resource. Multiply yourself in others.
4. Identify the men and women under you and the strengths they possess. Begin delegating roles of service and build an army of capable and reliable workers.
5. Don’t criticize people who follow a different course. God may be using them in unique ways to reach and minister to others.
6. Recognize what you don’t know. Identify resources and people to help you learn.
7. Allow room to be wrong and grow from your mistakes. Image-management has no room for kingdom work.
8. Anticipate problems and help create solutions.
9. Don’t let murmurings control your leadership. Don’t listen to picking and critical unconstructive comments.
Be a risk taker! Try new things. They won’t all work but some of them will. You will discover what is usable and effective in working with your people.
Begin praying for a vision for what God wants to do in and through you. Gather people together and allow them to dream with you. Show them your heart and passion for the work. Prioritize and organize yourself to move forward and make a big impact on those you lead and teach. Soon, your followers will have stories, too.
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